In May I went to Roscoe with my brother to try fly fishing. We were able to stay at a cottage connected to a beautiful small manor. We went to one of the stores there, met a guide, got fitted with waders and bought a fishing license. Then we drove to the stream.

I saw some amazing things on this fly fishing trip. And I learned a lot of surprising things about how some flying insects are born. For instance the troutlike to eat Mayflies that rest on the surface of the stream. But these Mayflies only are on the stream a short time. They are born underwater as some kind of aquatic bug. One day they start to turn into a flying insect and rise to the surface where they stay until their wings dry out and they fly away.

I saw an ugly bug that looked like a cross between a beetle and a tick crawling out of the water up our guide's boot. What do you think it was? A dragonfly nymph. It was trying to crawl onto land to turn into a dragonfly. And it had a lot of company. Looking carefully on the shore I could see (with a little pointing out) lots of these half inch brown bugs. And they would start to wiggle and squirm. Eventually they'd break a hole in their skin just around the neck and stick out a head with giant eyes. Then they'd stand with their front legs on top of the shell of their old selves as they tried to pull out their wings and long tails. The wings would be all rolled up and gradually unroll. After about a half hour, they'd fly away on cellephane-clear wings. I hadn't even known they ever lived under water or that they metamorphosed.

I could say a little about fly fishing, but I'll just mention that you have to watch your fly lure very closely to see if a fish is checking it out. That is not easy to do.